


fluorite

by minimiwrite



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: 5+1 Things, M/M, Sibling Bonding, Spoilers through Legion Mate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-19 23:45:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16544633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minimiwrite/pseuds/minimiwrite
Summary: Five times that Emi Sendou noticed her older brother and his maybe probably boyfriend’s feelings, and the one time she didn’t (and then, maybe one more time she did).





	fluorite

1: the time before

It was getting harder for Emi to wake up Aichi. He didn’t move out of bed unless she really shook him and yelled, and even then he looked completely miserable, movingly slowly from place to place, as though each movement took everything he had. Emi didn’t know what to do with him, a lot of the time. She was scared that one day, he’d just stop moving (and to her, the scariest thing was that maybe something inside of him that she couldn’t see or fix already had).

That changed, just a little, the day Aichi brought home a card called Blaster Blade. He stood up just a little bit taller, and seemed just a bit more hopeful. Emi wasn’t sure how or why a piece of paper could do that to a person, but if that was a good enough reason for her brother to get up again in the mornings, she was happy nonetheless.

She asked about it once, briefly during dinner. Aichi had a faraway look in his eyes, and answered, “He told me, that one day, I would be able to image myself as strong as Blaster Blade is.”

Emi wondered who this “he” was, the person that meant so much to her brother, but Aichi didn’t elaborate, and in the end, had to move schools anyways. He still took the card where ever he went, and she hopes that she can meet whoever ended up becoming her older brother’s idol with a quick chance meeting.

* * *

 2: the time during

She watched Aichi when he had entered in the card shop tournament. He didn’t seem to notice her stares, especially while he stared at Kai Toshiki with wide, admiring eyes. He didn’t notice Kai’s looks at him either, the ones that seemed just a little bit proud, just a bit pleased. Aichi was able to snag the last place in Team Quadrifoglio by the end of the day, and was able to stand tall next to Kai.

The days when Aichi would walk home alone without any more tears to shed seemed like a fleeting bad dream on days like these, where he was surrounded by friends and rivals alike. He came home later which meant they spent less time together, but she didn’t mind as much as she thought she would’ve, seeing him smile the way he did.

As she and Aichi were walking home that day, Aichi rambling about the day’s events, clearly excited for the regional tournament, Emi found herself asking about Kai. “He had a really scary face while he was playing Vanguard. But he seemed nice, sort of.”

Aichi’s face lit up at the mere mention of Kai. “Kai’s a very kind person. He was the one who gave me Blaster Blade, actually.” He paused for a moment, glancing to the side. Emi noticed that there’s a bit of a sheepish smile on Aichi’s face. “He’s really strong too. I hope that one day, I’ll be able to catch up with him and be just as strong as he is!”

The cheer and determination on Aichi’s face is infectious and Emi finds herself hoping, that when Aichi finally catches up to Kai, they’ll move forward together from that point on (she has a strong feeling that it’ll happen).

* * *

 3: the time with psyqualia

Aichi was different these days. He was distant, often ignoring her and their mother in favor of playing more and more Vanguard. He wasn’t necessarily cruel to them, like he had been recently with his opponents, but treated them more like strangers than family. It was a lonely change from his normal kind self that always patiently went through her homework with her, always listened to her talk about her day, always complimented her on her growth in Vanguard when they fought for fun after dinner (she doesn’t ask him to fight her anymore, not like this, not when she’s sure that it won’t be fun).

She couldn’t find him one day, even at Card Capital, and neither Kamui or Misaki had seen him anywhere as well when she had asked them. Her mind flashed back to when he had crawled out of the hospital bed after she went to get him some water. She turned to leave the shop to search for him elsewhere, more worried than ever, thoughts racing about where he could have collapsed, who could find him, what they’d do to him (the images of a tired and young Aichi bedridden and unwilling to move flashed in her mind). Emi dashed out of the shop without looking up, and in her rush to find her brother before anything even close to her imagination could conjure up happen, she ran into someone and fell.

“Ah, I’m sorry…” she murmured politely, standing up quickly and moving around the person she bumped into, but before she could run off again, Emi heard a familiar voice call out her name, and she turned back for a moment.

“Sendou Emi,” Kai Toshiki stood there, seemingly undisturbed from their abrupt collision. His eyes were bright and determined, like a fire had been lit in them. “Do you know where your brother is today?”

Emi looked down at her feet, biting her lip. So even Kai, the one that her brother was desperately chasing, hadn’t seen him anywhere. “No. I’m looking for him right now.”

“I see.” Kai’s voice was full of frustration. He turned around and started to leave without another word, and Emi found herself calling out his name without even thinking.

“Kai! Do you think that Aichi is okay?” Her voice wavered, throat a little tight. She missed her brother. She wanted him back (the real one, not the fake one that wore his face and laughed at people who he deemed were weaker than him).

Kai didn’t turn to face her when he answered. “I don’t know.” The blunt answer cut deeply, and she could feel tears filling her eyes, threatening to spill over. But before they could, Kai continued. “But I swear I’ll bring him back.” And then, he was gone.

It wasn’t much. A simple promise from a teenager just a bit older than her brother, one that she didn’t know if he could keep or not. But it was all she had, and somehow, remembering the sharp, stubborn look on Kai’s face, she knew that nothing would stop him from getting her brother back, and that thought comforted her as she continued to search as well.

(Aichi comes home eventually, apologetic and smile soft again. Emi thanks whatever deity is listening that Kai was the one who found him.)

* * *

 4: the time with graduation

Aichi decides to go back to Miyaji Academy, to the complete despair of about half the regulars at Card Capital (she’s glad that he’s coming back, that means they can spend more time together, but that’s not something she’d admit outside the privacy of their shared home). Morikawa, Izaki, and Kamui all take turns trying to convince him to stay at Hitsue, alternating between begging and bribery. Miwa had told him it was a shame that he wasn’t staying on with them, before jokingly joining Morikawa and Kamui in their pleas, and Misaki, even while scolding the others for being completely out of control, still seemed pleased (in a way, Emi always liked watching Misaki scold the older boys; she really hopes that she can be that cool one day too). Emi watches Aichi turn slightly pink, still not too used to all of the attention, laughing nervously (there’s definitely some happiness in there too) and assuring them he’ll come back to Card Capital when he could so they could all play Vanguard together.

Kai stays quiet throughout it all, watching from the other side of the room. He seemed… off, somehow, though Emi didn’t know him well enough to confirm or deny that feeling. Unlike the rest of the Hitsue High students, he didn’t seem like the type to broadcast his feelings, but he seemed more conflicted than sad. She hadn’t had a chance to talk to him since the entire incident with what Aichi called Psyqualia, and there was something that she felt as though she needed to say. She approached him slowly, trying to get her thoughts together.

“Uhm. Hello, Kai…” She greeted him politely, unsure of how to start the conversation. Kai’s eyes flicker down to where she is, taking a moment to register who she was before reciprocating her greeting with a simple ‘ah’. A brief awkward silence fills the space between them, before she decides to just say what’s on her mind (it’s better than just leaving after she initiated the conversation). She can’t understand how easily Aichi talks to Kai, but then again, she thinks with a sigh, Aichi always had a special kind of patience for him. “I wanted to thank you for bringing Aichi home. From back then, I mean.”

Kai eyes widened, just slightly, before he looks away from her. “It’s what I promised to do.” There’s another beat of silence as she realized that Kai probably wasn’t going to continue.

“I know, and I’m grateful.” Emi looked back to her brother, in his new uniform, enjoying himself with all of his friends. “I don’t want to lose him.” She stated it plainly, without much fanfare; he was her older brother, and while it seemed like Aichi relied on Emi much more, she knew that the relationship between them was more equivalent than that. Her older brother is an encouraging presence, someone to look up to, and one of the people in her life that she cared for most. Looking back up at Kai, she was noticed that he was staring at Aichi, still in the middle of the large group, again. “If you want to talk to him, you should. He would like it.”

“... It’s fine. He’s busy right now anyways.” Kai turned, and then quietly moved to leave the shop, though both Aichi and Miwa noticed his attempts to leave and tried to gently bring him back into the small party with Vanguard. He’s only convinced to stay after Aichi challenges him to another fight between the two of them, getting dragged to one of the standing tables. Kai looks at Aichi fondly when he thinks the other isn’t looking throughout the entire interaction, and Emi wonders why he didn’t just talk to Aichi in the first place.

(She hopes they’ll talk soon. The situation was getting scarily similar to her shoujo manga, and things for the main couple never went well.)

* * *

 5: the time with the reverse

Emi sat with her mother at home, deck at the ready if anyone tried come in and turn her or her mother into more reversed. Mai was with her as well, muffling her sobs, and the three sat in silence as they heard screams outside. She wished that she could take Mai home to check on her parents, but the Sendou residence was closer, and both of them were exhausted after the ordeal with Rekka. After what seemed like an eternity, the screams eventually quieted, and the door creaked open, Aichi stumbling in by himself, with a pained smile and a strained, “I’m home”.

Their mother leapt up and pulled Aichi into a hug, the tension draining from her shoulders, crying. Emi quickly joined in, and all three of the Sendous collapsed on the floor in an unceremonious heap.

“We were able to fix the problem,” Aichi says to her and their mother later quietly, once they had recovered some and taken Mai home to her grateful parents. He had his hand over his chest, gripping the fabric of his turtleneck tightly (Emi wondered briefly if he had been hurt there). “I won’t let anything like that happen again.”

“Why did it even happen in the first place?” Their mother had her head in her hands, exhausted. Out of everyone there, she understood the least about what had just transpired, having little understanding of both the game and how it could create a terrifying reality.

“Kai...” Aichi hesitated slightly, then continued, with a determined, gentle look in his eyes, his voice unwavering and clear. “Kai made a mistake because he was scared of being left behind. But he’s going to do his best to make up for it. We’re going to do our best to make up for it, together. That’s what I can do for him, as his friend and rival.”

Sendou Shizuka didn’t seem too impressed with that answer, confused as to how making a few mistakes in a _children’s card game_ could lead to the world almost ending, and while she started to ask Aichi more questions, Emi found herself staring at Aichi. It was clear that Aichi had already forgiven Kai, had already decided that Kai still could turn this around and make things better. Emi didn’t know what happened between the two of them, but it seemed as though whatever it was had only strengthened Aichi’s resolve to stand by Kai’s side no matter what happened. She marveled at just how deep his feelings for one Kai Toshiki ran (and how Aichi still didn’t realize he was probably deeply, deeply in love).

* * *

 +1: the one time she didnt

Home was quieter than usual these days, for some reason, and Emi found herself staying at Card Capital later and later in an effort to starve off the loneliness she felt (but it didn’t make any sense, this has always the way it had been, right?). There was a nagging feeling in the back of her head that she was forgetting something important, but no matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn’t seem to place what it was. It was much easier to play Vanguard with Mai, walk home, eat dinner, do her homework, and promptly sleep afterwards than deal with the empty space that occupied her too big home.

“Sendou... Emi.” A deep, unfamiliar (familiar?) voice stated her name and she startled slightly.

“Yes…?” Turning, she recognized the tall teen who had come over to her and Mai’s table. “Ah, Kai Toshiki!”  For a split second, she thought it was strange that someone else wasn’t there, standing next to him with a wide smile and soft eyes, but the feeling disappeared as soon as it came and she smiled politely at the tall teen. There was a slight pause as she wondered what he could have wanted with her. To her knowledge, they had never spoken before. She turned to her friend. “You’re a really strong cardfighter, right? You know about him, right, Mai?”

Mai quickly nodded and smiled, though she seemed rather confused. Neither of them really knew what to do or say with the much older cardfigher. Thankfully, Kai didn’t seem to notice or care about the slightly awkward atmosphere that had settled around the table, and continued the conversation. “Do you know where your brother is today?”

“Eh? I’m… an only child.” There was an odd sense of dejavu permeating her senses, and it felt strange to respond the way she did. It was even stranger to see the pure panic registering on Kai’s face (it couldn’t have happened, but it feels like they’ve talked about this before). “Is there something wrong?”

Instead of answering her question, Kai asked, with an anxious edge to his voice, “Do you know Sendou Aichi?”

“Sendou… Is that a relative of yours, Emi?” Mai chimed in, still clearly curious as well.

“Nuh uh. No one I know.” She responded, trying to ignore the plastic feeling the words left in her mouth. Looking up again at Kai, she had noticed that he had become quite pale. She frowned, trying harder to recall who Sendou Aichi was. Maybe he was a distant cousin who studied overseas that cardfought? But that didn’t seem right. Sendou Aichi seemed like a name that she should know quite well. “Uhm…”

“Nevermind. It’s nothing.” He muttered, turning away as he did so. “Sorry to bother you.”

Kai walked away, posture stiff. The exchange the three shared was brief, barely a minute, and as Emi and Mai watched Kai’s retreating back, they were still a bit confused as to what had just happened.

Mai was the first to break the silence. “Sendou Aichi, huh? I hope Kai finds him soon.”

Emi stayed quiet for a brief moment, staring at Kai, who had struck up another stilted conversation with the manager. She felt the impulse to call out for a moment, ask him who Aichi was, and why that name filled her with nostalgia. Aichi seemed to be important to him, but somehow, just the word “important” didn’t seem good enough to explain Kai’s behavior.  But Kai was out the door before she could decide on whether or not to ask, and she turned back to Mai. “Mmhm, me too.”

Maybe after he does, she could ask him to introduce Aichi to her (though, in a way, the idea of that made her want to laugh and cry in equal measure).

* * *

 (+2: the time they all knew)

She caught them, on the front porch, holding hands and faces leaning close to the other’s during the summer before Kai was due to go to France. When the door had opened, they jolted apart, as if burned by the other. Aichi turned red faced and tried to squeak out an excuse, hands waving as he tried to figure out an explanation, and Kai was determined on looking anywhere but at her, also growing pink. Emi couldn’t fight back the grin. Didn’t they know that she had known from the beginning?

“Welcome back, both of you! Mom says that dinner is ready!” She chirped out, and smiled wider when Aichi, who was still an incredible shade of red, reached out, and Kai, who still was looking off to the side, away from her, took Aichi’s hand in his, as they walked into the Sendou residence, side by side.

Emi vaguely recalled reading that dense objects simply had more packed of itself packed into the space it occupies. She hopes that means that Aichi and Kai’s love was just that much more fulfilling for all the time it took them to realize it (she had a good feeling it would be).

**Author's Note:**

> i luv kaichi but i luv sendou emi too


End file.
